MISTAKE #1 Believing You and Your Team Have the Expertise To Do This
In my 25 years experience in working with small businesses, it's been very rare to find someone in the business who can extract the step-by-step information out of the heads of the owner and every team member which explains exactly how they do their job, AND then be able to turn that information into simple procedures.
Think about your small business: Does anyone have this skill and expertise...really?
When I give people a blank piece of paper and ask them to write down what they do, most people struggle because they do the task instinctively, and to unpack every single step is difficult.
Fortunately for me, this is one of my superpowers and the phrase I say the most when doing this work with clients is 'And now what do you do?'
If you answered Yes to my question, then here's my next question:
Are you giving that person (which may be you) the time and space needed to develop simple procedures, or are you like most owners who say to their staff, 'Please document what you do as you go through your tasks'.
If you say this to yourself or your team, please know IT DOESN'T HAPPEN AND DOESN'T WORK!
Why?
Because firstly, staff are too busy getting the many tasks done each day to STOP and document what they're doing.
Secondly, and most importantly, people are completing tasks instinctively by habit so unless you STOP and interrupt their cognitive thinking to drill down and determine what they actually did and when, you'll only get part of the steps because you're documenting what they THINK they do, not what they actually do.
So it's time to see if anyone in your business has my superpower of being able to extract and document simple systems.
If you do, then that's fantastic but please understand unless they are pulled offline or allocated specific and uninterrupted time during their work day to do this, it won't get done.
If you don't, then please invest in the help to get this done before it costs you anymore time and money.
MISTAKE #2 Waiting Until Your Business Is 'Slow' Before You Start
Trust me, there is never a good time to document procedures – and the lack of systems are definitely costing you time and money NOW!
And the longer you wait, the higher the risk this knowledge will walk out the door or cost you a client.
If possible, I always recommend to my clients that they document their procedures BEFORE they bring on more staff so they can give that person the best chance of succeeding in the role; rather than probably walking into a mess of some or no procedures which may or may not work.
And if there's just you in the business and you think you don't need to document how you do things, then please know that this belief means you never want to grow, get more help and take some time off.
Even businesses like mine where it's just me, need systems documented so you're not wasting your valuable time looking for that email to copy, those passwords, steps to update your website etc.
So start with my suggestion of blocking out 4 x 15 minute blocks every day – or even just one 15 minute block to start with; and make this a not-negotiable meeting to start building your systems.
It may not seem a lot but just 15 minutes a day means you'll actually have spent 1 ¼ hours a week solely focused on building your systems – and that's a lot more than the none you were doing last week.
MISTAKE #3 Building Systems Around People And Not Positions
It's great when people start documenting what they do.
However, unless these tasks are aligned with a position within the business, chances are you will only get that person's perspective (which may include their bad habits) on how they do a particular task rather than how you believe it SHOULD be done.
Every time I've worked with a team to get a summary of the key tasks and responsibilities they do to then discuss this with the owner, I always have the owner say one or both of these phrases:
• Why are they doing that? They're not supposed to be doing that, that's NAME's job.
• I didn't know they were doing that.
As you can see, either response means there's confusion and probably duplication occurring in the business – all of which cost you time and money.
So when you start to build your systems, firstly document the key tasks and responsibilities within each position and confirm with your staff that it's correct.
Otherwise, you could be building systems which are out of date, not needed or being duplicated unnecessarily before you even start.
